Sunday night, Eli Manning was sacked three times and hit five times. And the Giants ran for a grand total of 50 yards on 14 carries.

Not an ideal game for the team’s offensive line.

“It was bad,” guard Chris Snee said of his unit’s performance. “There were just too many holes.”

There were plenty of things that weren’t good about the offensive line in the Giants’ season-opening 36-31 loss to the Cowboys, and make no mistake — the group needs a stronger showing Sunday against Denver in Manning Bowl III. The Giants were forced to try to win a shootout in Dallas, and considering how potent Peyton Manning’s offense is, Eli and Co. may need to try to win a shootout again.

Thus, Manning — who was sacked an NFL-low 19 times last year — needs time to throw. And running backs David Wilson, Brandon Jacobs and Da’Rel Scott need room to run.

“We should’ve been able to play better than we did,” offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said of the line. “I think the guys are very disappointed because they have great pride out there. You had two new starters. You couple that with a tight end [Brandon Myers] that was new. It was three out of six. That lack of coordination and cohesion probably manifested itself more than we hoped.”

The coordination and cohesion could be better this week. Center David Baas, who missed the opener with a knee injury, practiced Wednesday and Thursday, albeit in a limited capacity. Baas admitted Friday “will be a huge indicator” but said he’s “absolutely” on track to face Denver.

“I’m doing good. Today’s better than yesterday for sure,” he said. “I’m expecting to play Sunday.”

Said Gilbride of Baas: “You want your best players out there, and he certainly is one of the five best. It allows [replacement center] Kevin [Boothe] to get over to the left guard. Him and [left tackle] William [Beatty] work very well.”

The Giants have suffered through offensive line issues since training camp started. Snee began camp on the physically unable to perform list after offseason hip surgery, right tackle David Diehl required thumb surgery and is still out and Baas suffered his knee injury in the second preseason game, against the Colts. Meanwhile, right tackle Justin Pugh is a rookie, Myers, the tight end, made his Giants debut on Sunday and James Brewer — who had never started in his NFL career — was the season-opening left guard.

Last season the Broncos tied for the NFL lead with 52 sacks and also ranked second in run defense, allowing just 3.6 yards per carry. Granted, this season Denver is missing Von Miller (suspension) and Elvis Dumervil (now on the Ravens), but as Boothe pointed out, “What we’ve seen [from Denver] is four sacks against the Super Bowl champs [last] Thursday.”

Indeed, in their romp over the Ravens in the NFL opener, Denver racked up four sacks, 10 tackles for losses and eight quarterback hits. The Broncos also held the Ravens to 58 yards rushing on 21 carries, limiting Ray Rice to just 36 yards on 12 attempts. Linebacker Shaun Phillips, who delivered 9.5 sacks for the Chargers last season, is now a Bronco and tallied 2.5 sacks in the opener.

“They have talented players,” Boothe said.

Tom Coughlin labeled his offensive line’s season-opening performance as “inconsistent,” saying, “Like every other position, we did some good things and we did some bad.”

Healthier and even a tad more experienced heading into Week 2, they’ll need a finer performance.